84 ALTERATION OF POSITION. 



CHAPTER I. 



DISPLACEMENT. 



Real or apparent displacement of organs from their 

 usual position is an almost necessary consequence of, 

 or is, at least, coexistent with a large number of tera- 

 tological phenomena. It is obvious that abnormal 

 unions or disunions, suppressions, hypertrophies, &c., 

 are very liable to bring about or to be accompanied 

 with changes in the position, either of the parts 

 directly affected or of adjoining organs. 



In this place, then, it is merely necessary to allude 

 to some of the more important displacements, and to 

 refer for further details to the sections relating to those 

 irregularities of growth on which the displacement 

 depends. 



Displacement of bulbs. I owe to the kindness of Mr. 

 James Salter a tulip bulb which had been dug up after 

 flowering, and from the base of which were suspended 

 several small bulbs ; and I have since seen another 

 specimen showing the same unusual arrangement. The 

 explanation of these formations seems to be that they 

 correspond to the bulbils ordinarily found in the axils 

 of the scales of the parent organ, and which, in some 

 way or another, have been displaced and thrust into the 

 ground. Professor de Vriese figures something of the 

 same kind in Ixia carminosa} 



Of somewhat different nature to those above described 

 was an anomaly described by M. Gay at a meeting 

 of the Botanical Society of France, April 8th, 1859. 

 The plant affected was Leucoium ccstivum, and the 

 changes observed were apparently attributable to a 

 simple separation of two leaves that are usually con- 

 tiguous. *' Suppose," says M. Gay in describing this 



' ' Tijdflchr. voor. nat. Gesch.,' viii, 1841, tab. ii, p. 178. 



